On Foundation Of Kindness, Market Rebuilds

September 7, 2001|By Madeline BarM-s Diaz Staff Writer

Nassau, Bahamas — Dorotha Seymour has twice seen her straw business damaged as the result of a fire, most recently on Tuesday.

Seymour also had one of 180 stalls when a blaze broke out in the Straw Market early one Saturday morning in the mid-1970s. Although the straw bags and tablemats among her wares did not burn, they were damaged by the water firefighters used to quell the flames. They were unsalable.

But back then, aid came from several quarters, including the government.

"They gave everybody a check for fire and water damage," she said of the government. "It helped. Then we had a lot of help from the community."

The vendors whose merchandise was spared gave some of their goods to their colleagues to sell and a businessman even donated several yards of straw. Within days, they were selling in a temporary market, although it would be eight years before a new Straw Market was built and all the vendors moved in.

On Thursday, the Bahamian government continued to announce measures to help straw vendors such as Seymour and others whose stands were destroyed by a fire that investigators think was deliberately set on Tuesday afternoon.

Police Supt. Marvin Dames said they have detained a 26-year-old man who used to be a vendor at the Straw Market. Dames said there was "no validity" to reports that he was a spurned lover or the upset son of a straw vendor, but the police superintendent would not disclose a possible motive. The unidentified man will be arraigned today, Dames said.

Meanwhile, other vendors who sell off the cruise ship wharf were forced to move as bulldozers razed their stands along with what remained of the charred Straw Market structure Thursday afternoon.

One big difference between Tuesday's fire and the one in the 1970s is that fewer straw market vendors lost their stock of souvenirs, Seymour said. Because some of the straw vendors sold their goods outside the Parliament buildings at the time, only about 180 people were affected by the last fire, Seymour said.

Tommy Turnquest, the Minister of Tourism, said the 528 registered straw vendors and their employees, about 1,500 people in all, would receive an unspecified amount of financial aid to replace the income lost to Tuesday's blaze. Each was handed $100 in government coupons to buy food for their families on Thursday. Algernon Allen, a member of Parliament and former social services minister, donated his monthly salary, about $2,500, to a fire relief fund for vendors.

Turnquest said the Straw Market would be rebuilt, but it could be at least 16 months before a new one is completed.

Most vendors say they are satisfied with the government's response.

"I think it's going to help us," said Nathalee Evans as she sat on a bench outside the Parliament building and wove a basket out of straw, a basket she hoped to sell soon. "Some of us have to pay mortgages and school fees. I have three grandchildren at home with me."

Some vendors are waiting to see how far the government will go. Rudy McPhee, whose family sold ceramics, picture frames and other items at the straw market, said all they salvaged of their merchandise was "a couple of T-shirts."

"I think the government is responding at a good enough pace, but I don't think they have done enough just yet," he said.

McPhee said the $100 food coupon is not enough, particularly in a country where the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar is one to one.

"These people have kids," he said. "The cost of living is extremely high."

But Seymour, for one, remembers how fast the vendors got back on their feet the last time and hopes it will happen again.

"Last time we was back on Monday. We were all over the streets," she said. "We'd like to get back in business as soon as possible."

Staff Writer Madeline BarM-s Diaz can be reached at mbaro@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5007.